Otter Watersports

Last night my friend Milly came round.  He had spotted an old plastic watertank, and thought it would make a good beginners swimming pool for Otto. We went to have a look at it and it was indeed ideal. It had been cut down to about 2 feet high...perfect! By the time we got it back it was dark, so it had to wait till the morning.

A few days earlier Myself, Milly and Peter moved a large shellfish transporter container round to the enclosure. The idea came from Innes, who suggested I take it home for Otto to learn to swim in. It's pretty big and I havent quite worked out yet how to set it up. An extra section, extension will probably have to be added to the existing enclosure. Finding this new water tank is brilliant because it means Otto can get into his watersports right away. Nice one Milly!

I gave it a good clean, fitted an open/close valve to it (for emptying the water) and carefully man handled it over the wire netting of the run. Once it was steady and level enough I filled it with about 30cm of water, bucketed from the adjacent freshwater burn. There was some heavy rain last night so the burn was in full flow.I piled some rocks up on the outside of it for Otto to get in, and done the same on the inside for him to get back out. I only filled it with 30cm of water so he can get used to it. Once he is confident, I will fill it up. Think I need to get myself a length of hose and a water pump...so much easier than going back and forth with buckets.

Just need to wait now and see if he uses it. I've not seen Otto in water before so hopefully I'll get some decent photographs when he decides to dive in.

This evening Otto has been as playful as ever. I gave him his supper, a Codling, which he completely devoured. After supper, he had a good old play fight with me but showed no real interest in his new swimming pool. I'll check on him again later...

all in good time.

Shellfish transporter container

Donated by Innes Henderson

The new learning pool...half a watertank!

Hope Otto likes it